SAMALESWARI STORE Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Sales Tax Tribunal, Orissa, on making a reference under section 24 (1) of the Orissa Sales Tax Act, 1947 (for short, "the Act"), has referred the following questions of law for determination by this Court :

(2.) THE facts : For the assessment year 1975-76, the assessing officer, while making the assessment under section 12 (4) of the Act, imposed sales tax on the transactions of different kinds of dal made by the dealer and raised an additional demand of Rs. 5,437 on the ground that dal was a different item than gram and could not be included in any form of gram, a notified commodity. The dealer, however, challenged this imposition on the ground that dal, being one of the forms of gram and already subjected to purchase tax with effect from 1st October, 1974 was not liable to further tax. The dealer, however, also failed before both the appellate forums.

(3.) LET us consider the meaning of the word "form". The Revenue authorities have interpreted this word as seen above to include all varieties of gram. In my opinion, the expression "form" is not referable only to its varieties. The meaning of the word "form" according to the Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary is :